“It was just, I think, a high pain threshold. I was probably injured more than anybody else on the teams that I played with. But I’ve always just been able to endure pain,” Martin explained. “That was the value that I brought to the team. No matter what, unless my bone was hanging out of my leg, I was going to be out on the field performing.”

Martin also explained to Jones-Drew the inspiration he drew from head coach Bill Parcells early in his career that led him to play through injuries.

“Even to be out there injured is a privilege. So I’m always on, no matter what I do,” Martin said. “I’m always doing my best. And whatever it takes for me to be at my best, and whatever I have to go through and deal with to be at my best, I’m gonna do it. The only time I would come off the field when I was playing was when I felt there was someone else who was healthier and who could do better than I was doing, because I didn’t want to hurt the team.

“I remember, and I said it in my [Hall of Fame] speech, something Parcells said to me that always stuck with me,” Martin continued. “He always used to call me Boy Wonder, so he said, ‘Boy Wonder, you never want to come out of the huddle because you never know who’s going in the huddle.’ And ever since he said that to me, that was my goal throughout my entire career, to never have to come out of the huddle.”